Everyone had expected the party to be in the newspapers the next day but not because one of the hosts was murdered! All the crap that Dallas discovers when she finally starts digging in the right place showed a pattern that was considerably more interesting and diabolical, but the reason the initial murder happens and brings down the perpetrator’s whole lifelong house of cards was just a bit meh. With so many attendees, staff, and servers, Eve has her work cut out determining who committed murder in the middle of the crowd―and what was their motivation.

Right before the show started, when they went backstage, somebody pulled her father aside to tell him that Rose had died. She hits Bernstein with the current charges (possession of fraudulent identification, trespassing, theft, fraud, fleeing from police officers and assault on a police officer, resisting arrest) and some of her aliases (Debbie Starr, Madame Rose, Rose Stein, Leah Starr, and Debra Rose). This dark magic caused his (Brant’s) obsession with Eliza, made Eliza press charges and testify against him in court. He tells Roarke not everybody gets that, but it means something when somebody not only gets it but gives a rat’s ass, and thanks him for getting it, for not being a stupid son of a bitch, and giving a lot more than a rat’s ass. Eve continues winding Lane up, wondering how Brant could leave her for six months, put his career ahead of her and her career, when she clearly needed him there.

While that’s the way she thinks of them, they’re not exactly ‘rules’ and they’re not just about marriage. Since Roarke looks frustrated with work when Eve got home, she surprises him with fish and chips, figuring it to be his comfort food. After all, familiarity does breed contempt and there’s no one more familiar than a spouse or domestic partner. Jenkinson points at the motto posted over the break room door, "NO MATTER YOUR RACE, CREED, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, OR POLITICAL AFFILIATION, WE PROTECT AND SERVE,* BECAUSE YOU COULD GET DEAD.

Eve and Peabody make their next stop Vera's plus-one, Rico Estaban, who has a guest spot on a new series shooting in the West Village. I just knew she was gon’ be Eliza or Brant’s bitter long lost daughter they put up for adoption and now she's back for revenge or somethin’ like that. I used to really enjoy this series but as the series progressed the sameness of the plots did my head in. Eve tags Nadine to tell her about Bernstein’s murder and drop hints about Eliza adding pills to Leah Rose’s vodka 25 years ago.Eve gets in touch with one of the primaries on Rose’s death, Chief Wimbly, and learns that the general consensus is that Debra Bernstein is a piece of work and that Debra found a way backstage before the show despite not being invited by Rose. Reo is all dressed up because “it’s not every day you get to take on a multiple murderer, multiple Tony and Grammy winner, an Oscar winner. With so many witnesses, a distraught Eliza as well as her friends and staff, Eve had her work cut out. Their marriage was almost ten years long and the party in their apartment was one of both farewell to Brant as he headed to New Zealand the following day for six months, and Eliza as the revival of the stage play of twenty five years ago was due to begin again.

The case was interesting, I really had a hard time guessing the bad guy until Eve laid it out for us. It’s almost midnight, so Eve texts Peabody to let her know they are going to Brooklyn in the morning to interview the nephew before they put Debra back in Interview and she and Roarke go to bed. Peabody says she’ll do a run on the choreographer, Minerva Novak, who was standing next to Brant, but first wants two minutes to talk to Eve about the Great House Project (which runs long because Eve is feeling generous). Since the champagne cocktail that killed Brant was originally intended for Eliza, could it be that she was the real target?Maeve took to reminding Lane that she was only there because Leah was in the morgue, and has had a few barbed things to say about the revival, how at least this time when she’s stepping into her shoes, Spindal is still wearing hers. They agree that Debra is not equipped to accept any kind of blame or personal responsibility for what happened with Rose, so others must be blamed, and the Tony rightfully belongs to her, not to Eliza or even to her daughter. Eve thinks the mistakes keep piling up and heads to Bowen’s apartment, where she finds a vial of cyanide in her granddaughter’s room.

Eve doesn’t think she was close enough to Brant to knock the drink away in time, but is still leaning away from her as the killer. If you subscribe to Nora’s News, you’ve already read Chapter One when I sent the newsletter out over a week ago. Or he's the gorgeous, Christmas-loving guy who owns the local diner in another small town where the gorgeous, high-powered ad exec gets stuck, and she falls for his, his adorable niece, and Christmas. Eve tells him not to look but her partner has a stunner pointed at him, and when he looks at Peabody, Eve tells him, "Told you not to look. With so many people at the party, Eve has her work cut out determining who could commit murder in the middle of a crowd.At Central, on an elevator, Eve and Peabody encounter a tourist whose purse was stolen; she is wailing, "He stole my purse.